New Idea...Need Advice....

[richkid]

Hey guys I am working on a new website/project that will result in a collaborated book full of stories from visitors.

This book will be printed and sold in book stores (hopefully) and online - after I have edited it and added some extra content.

I am just wondering what the legalities are of using others content. They will know that the information they are submitting will be for a book, and they will accept a terms and conditions saying that they relinquish all rights to any profits made from the book.

Is there anything else that you can think of that I will need to do to cover myself?

[akula]

great question..

1. podclass.com are also doing this exact stuff. check out their eula

2. the kind of eula you're talking about has a clause like;

"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

3. whilst courts usually interpret eula's like this to side with the publisher, the users of the websites have been known to win some rights to their "virtual property" in a number of limited circumstances, in despite of the eula

4. look....whilst the court does have a power to set aside or alter your eula based on equity, or statutory breaches..this really does not happen very often...if it did, i'd tell you why it happens, but it doesn't.

to protect your self;

1. make sure you have a well drafted eula
2. make sure you have an obvious clickwrap agreement...so that the user can't say she was unaware of the terms when she agreed to them.

[akula]

I am just wondering what the legalities are of using others content.

in short...this is how it works. there's 2 parties; the publisher (you) and the author (user).

the rights of the user are limited to the eula, except in a few limited circumstances. for example; if a hacker broke into your site and deleted the author's content, courts in china have allowed such authors to sue the publisher and win damages - because the publisher was negligent in protecting the author's content...but these cases are an anomaly

generally, the rights are limited to the eula...but it's up to you to have a good eula, and it's up to you to make sure that users read it, or indicate that they've read it.

[richkid]

hey Daniel!

thanks for the great information, I will definately be checking out podclass.com and their eula.

Ill post when I get more information about the project, it is still in planning.

[akula]

guess where that model clause came from?

that would be paragraph 2, under heading of "User Content Posted on the Site" at Facebook | Terms of Use

[richkid]

guess where that model clause came from?

that would be paragraph 2, under heading of "User Content Posted on the Site" at Facebook | Terms of Use

Haha... it is a good clause though, but then again they got the money to pay the best lawyers to write it.

[BusinessAdviser]

If you are going to take sections of their own writings at all, make sure that in your Terms & Conditions you provide that by submitting something to you via that method, they "expressly" agree to assign all copyrights for that work and any derivative works, whether in existence at that time or to later be created. You can probably find some legal samples with better wording, but that's what you need.